Education

Ralph Ellison attended Douglass High School, where he became interested in music and less interested in academics. Though he was not even expected to go to college, he dreamed of attending Julliard or Harvard. He received a music scholarship to the Tuskegee Institute in Macon County, Alabama in1933. While at school, he was taught for some time by Hazel Harrison, an American pianist. He worked at the college library during his time at Tuskegee and read such stories as Wuthering Heights, Crime and Punishment, Jude the Obscure, and Waste Land. In 1936, the school, due to financial difficulties, shut down it's music department. He moved to New York City to study sculptures. It was around this time that Richard Wright convinced him to consider writing as a career.

Tuskegee Institute Picture Citation